OXFORD, Ohio – Saylor Lavallii punched it in from 16 yards out, lightning struck, and Central Michigan was in the driver’s seat.

It turned out to not be quite enough, however, but Lavallii got the job done again with his second rushing touchdown from three yards out late in the third quarter to help lead the Chippewas to a 21-9 victory Saturday afternoon against winless Miami at Yager Stadium.

In what was a fairly sloppy display of football by both sides, one that included a 49-minute first-half lightning delay, CMU was the team that began putting it together in the second half.

“This league is very close talent-wise and it’s always tough to go on the road and get a win,” said Chippewas head coach Dan Enos. “We had to overcome a couple turnovers and our defense played outstanding. We’re just happy to get a win.”

Central Michigan ends a three-game losing streak in improving to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference, while Miami falls to 0-5 and 0-1.

Miami outgained Central Michigan by a slim 47 to 42 margin after one quarter of play, setting the stage for what was an ugly first half disrupted by the lightning delay.

The lone points that were scored in the quarter came on a 40-yard field goal by Miami’s Kaleb Patterson at the 4:16 mark.

On the first RedHawks drive, junior defensive tackle Leterrius Walton made his presence known right off the bat with a tackle for loss followed by a sack.

That set the tone for a Chippewa defense that surrendered only 294 yards and just 110 after halftime.

Walton’s performance was much-needed with fellow defensive tackle Jabari Dean out for the season, while Matt Losiniecki missed the contest with a shoulder injury.

“That is the kind of player he needs to be for us,” Enos said of Walton. “I thought our whole defensive line in particular got pressure and did a nice job.”

Walton eventually completed his afternoon with seven tackles, three of those going for loss. Sophomore Louis Palmer was also a force on the defensive line, registering a sack among his two tackles for loss and four total tackles.

Miami, which boasted a MAC-worst 8.8 points per game average coming in, could not figure out how to get past its own miscues on offense. Despite eventually finishing the first half with 184 total yards, one turnover and six penalties prevented the RedHawks from scoring anything more than the early three points.

It took a while for the Chippewas to find those sea legs, but once they did it was too much to overcome.

Central Michigan started its offensive showing off in porous fashion as for the second week in a row, redshirt freshman quarterback Cooper Rush threw an interception on the first series. Rush, just as he did two weeks ago against Toledo, failed to see a sitting linebacker in Miami’s Chris Wade who promptly picked him off at Miami’s 38-yard line.

“If I could tell you the exact issue with Cooper, I’d write a book and retire and every coach in America would read it,” said Enos. “He’s young and that position is so confidence-driven. I think he was playing slow in the first half. He was trying not to make a mistake and he was throwing late.”

After halftime, Rush appeared to be a different quarterback.

“At halftime, (CMU quarterback coach) Morris Watts ripped him a new one and I think that had an impact on him,” Enos said. “If you are going to play like that, you have to throw the ball. I played the quarterback position and sometimes you wait for the guy to get open instead of letting instincts take over and throwing the ball when he is about to be open. I didn’t think he was doing that early and I’ll have to watch the film to see if that’s accurate.”

The halftime splits show Rush’s improvement as he went 3-of-11 for 28 yards and the interception in the first half, but eventually finished the day 11-of-21 for 110 yards.

Luckily for the Chippewas, they were able to overcome the turnover and Rush’s poor first half as the RedHawks offense was just about as inept as it appeared on the paper coming into the contest.

Lavallii’s touchdown early in the second quarter was mostly set up by a 54-yard punt return from Titus Davis, who found a crease and burst through to the Miami 19-yard line.

Two plays later, Lavallii scored on a 16-yard scamper and Ron Coluzzi booted the extra-point to put CMU ahead 7-3 with 10:45 left in the first half.

Then the lightning came, resulting in the 49-minute delay.

“Truthfully, the MAC games are all that matters for us,” said Lavallii. “We’re trying to win a MAC Championship. We want to compete hard in the MAC and have big rushing days.”

Lavallii said the Chippewas stayed loose with warm-up drills in the locker room during the lightning delay, so there was not much of an issue with tight muscles when they returned to the field.

The game continued to halftime at 7-3, while Miami took advantage of a Davis fumble on a punt return early in the third quarter. It set up the RedHawks deep in CMU territory and they scored two plays later on an Austin Boucher 10-yard TD pass to David Frazier.

In an unusual decision, Miami opted to go for the two-point conversion and a swinging gate play failed miserably to keep the score at 9-7 with 9:13 left in the third.

Central Michigan answered that score with its best drive of the afternoon, a 16-play and 84-yard drive that ate up chunks of yardage and 7:46 off the clock.

“That is what we were trying to do,” said Enos in reference to wearing down the Miami defense with the long drive. “They have some young guys there, but also some experienced seniors and we were trying to tire those guys out and get them off the field.”

Lavallii completed the drive with his 3-yard TD run to put the Chippewas back ahead 14-9 in the final minute of the quarter.

For his efforts, Lavallii tallied a career-high 151 yards on 25 carries along with the two touchdowns.

“We came out in the second half and knew we had to finish this game,” Lavallii said. “We finished the game and got the ‘W’.”

The final stamp for Central Michigan came on a 16-yard TD run by redshirt freshman Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore, his second touchdown in as many weeks.

Shoemaker-Gilmore burst up the middle and made a strong cut at the 5-yard line behind a Davis block, putting it in with 6:13 to go to stake CMU to the 21-9 lead.

“That play is designed to give a running back options,” Shoemaker-Gilmore said. “I had a cutback option and I just hit it. Titus made a really good block and I was able to find the end zone.”

Shoemaker-Gilmore finished with 10 carries for 51 yards and the score.

“We just want to stay rolling. We have another big road game at Ohio and then our homecoming. We just want to keep this good feeling going,” added Shoemaker-Gilmore.

Central Michigan returns to action Oct. 12 at Ohio. The contest is slated for a 2 p.m. kickoff.